Enchanted Lake Residents Association

May 2018 Newsletter

ELRA Member Meeting Recap

A Special ELRA Meeting was held at Enchanted Lake Elementary School on 17 April 2018. This informational meeting started with an update on the rewrite of the ELRA Bylaws, followed by a report on the plans for dredging.

Thirty-some lake residents attended the meeting and there were many questions about both projects.

The current bylaws were written in 2007. With the 2016 approval of the extension of Declaration of Protective Provisions (DPP) by ELRA members, it became important to bring the bylaws into agreement with the DPP.

The draft bylaws have been a work-in-progress for much of 2017, and written comments are welcome as the bylaws are finalized. The Board of Directors is now focused on amending the Articles of Incorporation.

The second half of the meeting was led by Sean Harding, who is spearheading the dredging project. He explained the permitting procedures and possible dredging methods, locations and staging areas for the ELRA project.

The primary dredge location is an extremely shallow section of the lake where it narrows to Kaelepulu Stream (a few lots mauka of the Keolu Bridge). They are planning to remove approximately 5,000 cubic yards of sediment from the stream bottom in this area which will allow for better water circulation when the stream mouth to the bay is open.

We anticipate having another special meeting for ELRA members about the dredging project, the Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation later in the year.

The primary focus area of the dredging project.

Damage and debris from the Friday the 13th storm

The Nightmare Storm of Friday the 13th

The storm of April 13th that brought devastation to areas of Kauai also brought massive amounts of muddy brown water and storm debris into Kaelepulu Pond. Even though the stream was open to the ocean, the water flowing into the lake came in much faster than it could flow out. The highest water levels happened sometime in the night, and folks awoke to “high tide” debris lines up and over their seawalls. Some barges were even perched high & dry above a very muddy lake.

At the mauka end of the lake, at least 10 dump-truck loads of gravel and mud washed into the lake and wetland through the city storm drain system from cleared land and construction projects located above Kalanianaole Highway.

The water level is still lower than normal and we encourage able-bodied lake residents to do what they can to clean up accessible shore-side trash and debris.

The two government agencies that you can write to about the unacceptable amount of trash and sediment that washed into the lake from streets and construction work are:

Berm Opening Support Needed

The people who are making the decisions for allowing the opening of the berm under a new permit are only hearing from those opposed to opening the berm.

If you want the city to be able to open the berm on a regular basis, which helps to restore the natural flow of water between the lake and the sea, then email your support of regular stream mouth openings to:

The subject line should include “Support for Kaelepulu Stream Mouth openings to the Sea.” Your letter or email can be brief. Let them know you support the regular openings and, ideally, add a reason or two as to why you support it.